Nvidia has agreed to acquire AI platform Hugging Face for $12.9 billion, according to The Information, in a deal that would strengthen the chipmaker’s position in open-source artificial intelligence.
Nvidia has agreed to acquire Hugging Face, a platform widely used by developers to build, share and deploy open source artificial intelligence models, for $12.9 billion, according to The Information.
The reported acquisition would rank among Nvidia’s largest deals and deepen its involvement in the broader AI ecosystem as competition intensifies around both computing hardware and AI software.
Hugging Face operates a repository for open source AI models and datasets and provides tools and cloud services that allow developers to build and run AI applications. Its platform has become an important part of the open source AI community. Hugging Face helps developers optimize AI models for different types of computing hardware and offers cloud infrastructure for running those models.
The Information reported that Nvidia's acquisition would give it control of a strategic asset as open source AI developers seek to narrow the gap with closed model companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic. Nvidia has also been developing its own open source AI models under its Nemotron brand.
Nvidia's move comes as major technology companies increasingly seek greater control over AI infrastructure. Companies including Google, Amazon and Microsoft have been developing or investing in alternative AI computing technologies, while leading AI developers such as OpenAI and Anthropic are also working to reduce their dependence on Nvidia hardware.
The reported $12.9 billion price represents a substantial increase from Hugging Face's most recent publicly known valuation. The company raised $235 million in 2023 in a funding round that valued it at approximately $4.5 billion. Nvidia was among the investors in that round, alongside companies including Salesforce and Google's parent Alphabet.
The Financial Times reported in January that Hugging Face had rejected a $500 million investment offer from Nvidia that would have valued the company at about $7 billion.
The Information reported that Hugging Face was recently generating approximately $150 million in annualized revenue, meaning the reported acquisition price would represent a substantial premium to its current revenue base.
The reported acquisition follows a series of major investments by Nvidia as CEO Jensen Huang seeks to strengthen the company's position across the rapidly expanding AI industry.
Nvidia said on Wednesday that it had committed $18 billion to equity investments for the remainder of its fiscal 2027 year. The company also forecast a 70% increase in revenue for the next fiscal year, underscoring the continuing demand for AI computing infrastructure.
Neither Nvidia nor Hugging Face immediately responded to requests for comment outside regular business hours, according to Reuters. The acquisition has been reported by The Information, which cited a person with knowledge of the agreement.
The transaction, if completed, would underscore Nvidia's strategy of expanding from the chips powering artificial intelligence into the software, models and developer ecosystem built around them.
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